d--

"It's all up with us, Ben. We may as well give in at once."

"That's so," said Ben sadly, as he suffered himself to be handcuffed,
after which he and his companion in misfortune were conducted back to
their cell.

CHAPTER NINE.

BILL AND BEN SET THEIR BRAINS TO STEEP WITH UNCONQUERABLE PERSEVERANCE.

In its slow but steady revolution, the wheel of fortune had now
apparently brought Bill Bowls and Ben Bolter to the lowest possible
point; and the former of these worthies consoled himself with the
reflection that, as things could scarcely get worse with them, it was
probable they would get better. His friend disputed this point.

"It's all very well," said Ben, crossing his legs and clasping his hands
over his knees, as he swayed himself to and fro, "to talk about havin'
come to the wust; but we've not got to that p'int by a long way. Why,
suppose that, instead o' bein' here, sound in wind and limb, though
summat unfort'nate in regard to the matter o' liberty,--suppose, I say,
that we wos lyin' in hospital with our right legs an' mayhap our left
arms took off with a round shot."

"Oh, if you go for to _supposin'_," said Bill, "you may suppose
anything. Why not suppose at once that we was lyin' in hospital with
both legs and arms took off by round shot, an' both eyes put out with
canister, an' our heads an' trunks carried away by grape-shot?"

"I didn't suppose that," said Ben quietly, "because that would be the
best instead o' the wust state we could come to, seein' that we'd know
an' care nothin' about it. Hows'ever, here we are, low enough, an'
havin' made an assault on the turnkey, it's not likely we'll get much
favour at the hands of the Mounseers; so it comes to this, that we must
set our brains to steep, an' see if we can't hit upon some dodge or
other to escape."

"That's what we must do," assented Bill Bowls, knitting his brows, and
gazing abstractedly at the blank wall opposite. "To git out o' this
here stone jug is what I've set my heart on, so the sooner we set about
it the better."

"Just so," said Ben. "Well, then, let's begin. Wot d'ye propose fust?"

To this Bill replied that he must think over it. Accordingly, he did
think over it, and his comrade assisted him, for the space of three
calendar months, without any satisfactory result. But the curious thing
about it was that, while these men revolved in their minds every
conceivable plan with unflagging eagerness, and were compe